Conferences

 I know many of my readers are fortunate to attend conferences and conventions relating to their jobs as well as their hobbies. I recently returned from Bouchercon, the worldwide mystery conference for authors and readers, and I have some advice for those who are planning to attend something similar.

Bouchercon is big—about 1200 people, and it’s both a business event for me and a chance to see friends and indulge in one of my biggest hobbies—reading. To get the most out of it, I started early. I answered emails from organizers promptly, providing my author photo and bio for the program and indicating that I would like to be on a panel.

I wrote about the kind of panel I wanted to be on, citing my publication record. The golden retriever mysteries fall into the sub-genre often called “soft-boiled cozies,” where there is no sex or blood on the page. They’re a tiny bit darker or more realistic than true cozies, which often include crafts or cooking, and I stay away from those.

Last year, I read 85 cozy mysteries as a judge for the Lilian Jackson Braun award given by Mystery Writers of America, and I wanted to share what I learned at Bouchercon. I was assigned to a panel called “How Do You Like Your Eggs in the Morning,” referencing that soft-boiled term. Sadly, the moderator didn’t get the message about the theme—she wanted us to talk about, of all things, the 1980s TV show Remington Steele!

Another author and I hijacked the program and involved the other panelists in sharing our experiences, discussing how we incorporate food and culture, how we keep a long-running series fresh, and where we draw the line between cozy and traditional mysteries. Though our panel was at eight AM, the audience seemed to love it.

I also asked to participate in the Speed Dating for Authors event. Twenty tables for ten in a banquet room, with two seats reserved for authors. My friend Clea Simon, who writes about cats (among other things) and I each had two minutes to talk to the table about our books. Then ring! The bell announced we had to move on to the next table. Two hours of that, and my husband wonders why I came home hoarse!

I accepted an invitation to lunch with an editor and other short-story authors, which was a great chance for in-depth conversation along the ever-popular topic “What do you write?” I learned how a woman with a military career had transitioned to writing about kick-ass female protagonists.

I was also invited to read a two-minute excerpt from a book at an evening event called Cocktails and Cozies. It was a lot of fun, and gave readers a chance to hear our work in our voices.

I reached out to people I knew, including book bloggers, to make arrangements for coffee and conversations, and I spent part of each day at a table in the lobby, just shmoozing.

If you’re going to a similar event, whether for work or play, I suggest that you consider what you want to gain—knowledge, networking, friendship, and so on, and plan how to achieve it. And be sure to leave yourself some free time for serendipity. I heard a great line from another author that I might steal, and I’ll leave you with it:

“He could barely count to twenty-one if he was naked.”

With joy and hopes for cooler weather—